So how, exactly, does Le Masque: Delay work, then? In a nutshell, it lets users accurately specify the part(s) of the dry signal — based on their time position and/or frequency content — that will be processed by the delay itself (accessed from within the GRID view); its associated LFO, envelope, and filter components (via the LFO & ENVELOPE view); and various modulators (within the TIME & MOD view) — masked zones within the grid area are processed by the delay while any audio data outside those masked zones remains untouched, in other words!

A mask — to which Le Masque: Delay owes its ‘nom de plume’ — is defined by its two locators: the left locator specifies the start point, the right its end; when the current transport locator enters a mask, the audio is sent through a full modulated filter into an accurate, fat-sounding delay. Unlike some other delays, the filter section is a crucial part of Le Masque: Delay — it uses XILS-lab’s renowned warm and smooth analogue filter models’ surgical-like precision to perform delicate musicals tasks, such as extracting and modifying existing parts of a drum loop (or any other loop), or transforming delayed kick drums into Simmons toms, for example. The delay area offers five dual-concentric knobs to control the delay settings (left and right FEEDBACK TIME, DRY/WET GAIN, and left and right PAN LEVEL), together with a synthesiser-type modulation wheel, while the LFO and ENVELOPE settlings can modulate the filter frequency and volume applied to the signal entering the delay.

Users can create up to eight independent masks (or zones) in the grid, each with different lengths, quantised or non-quantised locators, plus a specific level parameter; the grid can be synchronised to a DAW or its own internal clock for added flexibility.

Le Masque: Delay features

True stereo signal path (with independent right and left delay).

MIDI Sync and Stereo Link (delay modes).

Sync grid zone (with up to eight custom masks, each with independent length and level).